From Russia with Love
From: InnSpire - Issue 76 – December 2008
 St. Petersburg is brewed by Thornbridge Hall Country Hall Brewery, based in the grounds of a small stately home, in Ashford in the Water (near Bakewell, Derbyshire). Since October 2004 Thornbridge have been producing an interesting range of beers in their small brewery; known as the Baby Brewery. They try to use interesting ingredients to brew their beers and have already become successful winners at Beer Festivals nationwide.
Look out for their beers at pubs in and around Derbyshire (Sheffield also seems to be a good place to find them) and at beer festivals around the Country. Their range includes several core beers (they started at four but this is changing all the time) and a range of special and seasonal creations. The regulars include Wild Swan (a light lemony beer at 3.5% ABV), Kipling (a fruity light coloured beer at 5.2% ABV) and Jaipur (a strong IPA at 5.9% ABV).
It may seem a little odd for a beer brewed in deepest Derbyshire to be named after a place in Russia. Granted it IS a beer brewed in the style of a Russian Imperial Stout, but WHY St. Petersburg in particular? The answer for that comes from the history of Thornbridge Hall itself. A man called John Morewood purchased Thornbridge Hall in 1790. He paid £10,000 for it; a large amount in the 18th century! The funds to pay for it came from his trade. John Morewood sold linen from the mills in Manchester, which he exported overseas to St. Petersburg. When you consider this story it isn’t surprising that the brewery decided to name their stout because of this connection.
St. Petersburg weighs in at a mighty 7.7% ABV and is brewed in the style of a Russian Imperial Stout. This type of stout was originally produced for export to Russia. These stouts tend to be high in alcohol, and brewed with lots of hops (making a dryer stout than some of the standard stouts), to help preserve it for the long journey from the UK to Russia and also to make a strong warming drink for the cold Russian climate. By Imperial Stout standards St. Petersburg is not unusual in its strength; in fact some of the traditional “King of Stouts” (as Imperial Stouts became known) can be as high as 10% ABV.
Looks wise, St. Petersburg is a very dark, almost black colour with a nice hint of red when held up to the light. It has a good, solid milky coffee coloured head that leaves a good amount of lacing on the side of the glass as you drink. Aroma is also that of coffee, with bitter chocolate, vine fruits, caramel and roasted malts thrown in. Texture is full bodied, smooth and slightly syrupy; it is obvious from the start that this is a robust and strong drink.
St. Petersburg exhibits much of the tastes I expect from a Russian Imperial Stout. It has bags of roasted malt, mixed with dark fruits (blackberry and blackcurrants come through giving a slightly sour wine-like element), coffee, sweet caramel and bitter chocolate. This all builds and comes together to give an almost sweet and sour type flavour that works really well. The finish becomes increasingly bitter (as the hops kick in) and this carries on into the long, dry, bitter aftertaste.
This is very much a sipping beer and should be enjoyed as such. It isn’t one of those drinks that you carelessly tip down your throat. This is a strong and serious beer that should be respected and savoured. I love the combination of the dry, bitter, sour and sweet tastes that work together to produce a complex layered beer that is really tasty. I also like the fact that is HAS lots of flavour and complexity - this is not an easy combination to get and often strong beers tend to be strong just for the sake of being strong! It is good to get a warming beer that still manages to make you go mmmmmmm.
In my opinion this is a great beer that I will look out for again and again. It is dangerously drinkable and is a true BIG beer in every sense. Highly recommended and a perfect winter warmer!
www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk
Andrea Waterhouse
Move to the Dark Side!
From: InnSpire - Issue 75 – October 2008
 Spire Brewery is based in some modern industrial units in Staveley, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The owner and head brewer is David McLaren, an ex secondary school teacher and member of Her Majesty’s Scots Guards. He was a home brewer before finally taking the plunge and starting up as a professional brewer; brewing their first batch of beer in March 2006. Since then their 10 barrel plant has produced some great beers and have gained fans all over the UK.
Spire use only natural ingredients - only malt, hops, yeast & water and no artificial additives. They are also as environmentally friendly as they can be - they are as energy efficient as possible and mainly supply beers to local outlets (to cut down on beer miles). They produce a range of regular, seasonal and special beers, mostly in cask form, but some can be purchased in bottles too. Look for beers like Sgt. Pepper Stout (a rich dark stout with real pepper at 5.5% ABV), Land of Hop and Glory (a golden hoppy ale at 4.5% ABV) and Nocturne Porter (a smooth coffee flavoured beer at 5.7% ABV).
To fit in with the musical background of the brewer, a lot of their beers have a musical connection to their name. For example we have Twist and Stout, Whiter Shade of Pale and Overture. Dark Side of the Moon fits this theme perfectly - it is a dark beer, so the Pink Floyd song was just made for it!
Dark Side weighs in at 4.3% ABV and is brewed in the style of a Mid Ale - a beer brewed to be less hoppy than a bitter, stout or porter. Milds do generally tend to be lower in strength than other beers and are often darker in colour - but this is not always the case as there are strong Milds (like Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby) and light coloured Milds (like Timothy Taylor Golden Best). Milds were very popular in the 19th century and
the early years of the 20th century. Their popularity waned in the latter half of the 20th century and it seemed as though Mild was dying out as a beer style. The trend is being bucked recently and Milds seem to be enjoying a resurgence in recent years - more breweries are producing Milds and one was even named Champion Beer of Britain at the 2007 Great British Beer Festival (for Hobsons Mild).
Looks wise, Dark Side is a deep ruby coloured beer with a small off white coloured head. Aroma has hints of toffee, chocolate and slightly sweet biscuity roasted malt. Texture is light to medium bodied, with very little carbonation. It is an easy drinking beer with a good mix of flavours. Initially it is quite sweet, with a good amount of toffee and caramel sweetness. This leads to an increasing dryness, ending with a finish that combines bitterness with underlying sweetness. The aftertaste is quite short lived, but is also mellow and rich.
It’s a good beer to drink over a session and the subtle, but interesting flavours work very well together. The colour is very pleasing to the eye and the taste is as good as the beautiful deep ruby colour of the pint in the glass. I have sampled Dark Side of the Moon many times and have always found it to be a well crafted example of a Mild Ale - not too strong, not too hoppy, but with bags of flavour and lots to offer. My last few pints of Dark Side have been enjoyed in the Britannia at Tupton, where we pay £2.10 a pint for beers of this strength. The good thing about this pub is that the price is based on the strength of the beer, so you know where you are when choosing what to drink.
I have no hesitation in recommending Dark Side, whether you are a Mild fan or not. The subtler flavours make it a good stepping stone into drinking darker beers - it isn’t as strong tasting as Stout or as astringent as some Bitters can be. What you really need to do is give it a try and decide for yourself... …enjoy!
Andrea Waterhouse
Getting Fruity!
From: InnSpire - Issue 74 – August 2008
 For the second of my reviews of foreign beers I sampled at the recent Wetherspoons Spring Beer Festival I am moving from Japan to Poland. This beer was one I had wanted to try after seeing it in the beer festival programme, so I was really glad when we called into The Portland Hotel for tea and saw it on the current What’s On the Bar list. This little Polish Gem is Namyslow Original Plum Beer!
Namyslow Brewery is one of the oldest breweries in Europe, dating back over 600 years, to 1321. In that year, the first written document naming the brewery showed Duke Konrad I granting the Namyslow malt and brewing house exclusive rights to brew beer for the town and the surrounding area. Their beers are available via export from Poland around the world and include Golden Denarius (a pale lager style beer at 5.5% ABV), Zamkowe Jasne (a premium lager at 5.5% ABV) and Zamkowe Ciemne (a dark beer, also at 5.5% ABV).
Namyslow Plum weighs in at 4.0% ABV and is brewed using Perle hops. Looks wise this is a deep copper red coloured beer with a long lasting, tight white head, providing a nice contrast between the beer and the top. Aroma is a pleasant mix of sweet and tart; rather like sniffing a jar of plum jam or some prune juice! There is a slight hint of yeast lurking behind, but the scent is definitely dominated by the fruit. Texture is slightly syrupy, yet quite light and very easy to drink.
Taste wise Original Plum lives up to its name! Dominating all other flavours is the sweetness of plums. This sweetness does give way to more tartness as you drink, with the finish and aftertaste combining both these elements. To be honest there isn’t an awful lot more to the taste than that! It is simple, fruity and undoubtedly plummy!
Although I really enjoyed my Original Plum I’m not sure that I could drink more than a couple of pints in one sitting. I can also see that for some it would be their ideal of beer hell! It is really, really fruity and may be far too sweet for many people’s palates. I liked it immediately and persevered enough to allow the beer to warm a little, the flavours to develop and to get the full effect of the sweet and tart. More than a few sips revealed slightly more of a flavour balance than the first impressions gave and letting the beer warm up a little really helped.
I also thought that this was quite a nice looking beer; the copper red colour looked like the fruit that it tasted like and the white head completed the nice appearance - and for the bargain price of £1.39 a pint at the Beer Festival it was excellent value too. It’s great to be able to get interesting beers and I think Wetherspoons should be congratulated for trying something a little bit different!
Namyslow Original Plum Beer is something a little bit different and makes a pleasant change on a night out. It isn’t something I would drink all the time but it was one of those lovely evenings where a beer just fitted my mood and tasted exceptional. I actually texted a few of my beer drinking friends to tell them about it, so it must of made some sort of impression on me. I therefore can certainly recommend this extremely fruity beer and urge you to give it try if you happen to see any bottles or draught Namyslow Original Plum on your travels.
http://www.browarnamyslow.com.pl/ - there’s even a section on the beer “conquering England” at Wetherspoons on their news page!
Andrea Waterhouse
Big in Japan - Tokyo Black
From: InnSpire - Issue 73 – June 2008
 From 27th March to April 14th the J D Wetherspoon chain held one of its regular Beer Festivals, promoting cask ales from all over the UK, but this time from other parts of the world too. During the festival I sampled the wonderful Polish Namyslow Original Plum beer, the very tasty strong Californian Stone Brewing Company IPA and a Japanese Porter, called Yo-Ho Tokyo Black!
The Yo-Ho Brewing Company was founded in 1996 in Karuizawa, Japan. With their brewer, called Toshi Ishii, Yo-Ho pretty much started a Real Ale Revolution in Japan - there are now around 250 brew pubs and breweries around the country! They were also revolutionary in their decision to sell some of their beers in cans! Unfortunately their beers are difficult to obtain in this country.Ishii came over to the UK to brew the Tokyo Black for the Beer Festival at Marstons Brewery, to ensure the finished beer was fresh enough to be sold.
Tokyo Black weighs in at 5.0% ABV and is brewed using Perle and Cascade hops, along with chocolate and black malts. As its name suggests, it’s a dark brown, almost black porter-style beer. It has a light tan coloured head, which is bubbly and reasonable long lasting. Aroma is a mix of chocolate, espresso coffee and roasted malt. There’s also a hint of woodiness, giving a slightly oaky smell and a slightly sweet floral element, from the hops. Texture is smooth, medium to full bodied, slightly carbonated and dry on the palate.
Taste wise, Tokyo Black porter is quite a complex beer. The dominant flavours are chocolate and coffee (making it a little like mocha perhaps!). Initially it is quite sweet; combining fruit (grapefruits and vine fruits), liquorice and caramel. This leads to a dry roasted maltiness and a spice. A slight hoppiness creeps in towards the finish, leading to a dry aftertaste.
My experience of Tokyo Black is limited to the special cask ale batches brewed for the Wethespoons Beer Festival. To start with it was a very nice looking pint of beer – well presented with the coffee coloured head contrasting nicely with the deep black of the beer. It is an acquired taste though – the flavours are lovely but this is a beer that actually TASTES!
I liked the coffee and chocolate flavours and was impressed by way the different flavours had been put together. Good combinations of sweet and bitter flavours take you from one edge of the flavour spectrum to the other! The smooth, full bodied texture is pleasant easy to drink. At 5% though, you may want to remember that it is strong, despite the drinkability factor and is practically a meal in a glass!
My Tokyo Blacks were sampled at various Wetherspoons pubs (most notably the Portland Hotel and Spa Lane Vaults in Chesterfield) where I paid the reasonable sum of £1.39 a pint – the bargain price of a beer during the Wetherspoon beer festival.
According to the brewer, Tokyo Black was his first great masterpiece and introduced a new style of beer to the Japanese drinker. I may now have to wait for another beer festival to get hold of it again – boo! It does give me a reason to keep looking though because it is certainly highly recommended and a beer I will definitely want to try again in the future!
www.yohobrewing.com (unfortunately you will find the website is all in Japanese….but…hey…when in Japan…)
Andrea Waterhouse
A Very Tired Pussy!
From: InnSpire - Issue 72– April 2008
Anglo Dutch Brewery, based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, began life in Autumn 2000 and has gone from strength to strength ever since. As the name implies, one half of the partnership hails from the Netherlands!Regular bitters include Best (malty and ideal for a session, at 3.8% ABV), Kletswater (a light 4.0% brew) and Imperial Pint (dark and traditional, also 4.0%). Their range also includes Jasper’s Ale (pale and hoppy at 4.4%), Supreme Spikus (a pale organic 4.5% beer) and the 5.2% No Doubt it’s t’Stout.
Brewer Paul Klos named two of the beers after his children and not to be outdone, his business partner Mike Field decided that he wanted to dedicate one to his sleepy cat… thus Tabatha the Knackered was born! It is an unusual beer, but a popular one - not long after its conception, it won the top accolade at the 2001 Huddersfield Beer Festival.
Tabatha weighs in at 6.0% ABV and is brewed in the style of a Belgian Tripel - this implies a pale/blonde beer, strong in alcohol content, full bodied, and often with a sweet aromatic flavour. Anglo Dutch offers a pale yellow, clear beer with a very small, very short lasting head. Aroma is quite diverse, combining biscuity malt with a slight spiciness, herbs, apple and a floral and honey sweetness. It has a medium body, with a slightly syrupy texture. There is a small amount of carbonation and it is remarkably easy to drink for a beer of this strength.
The taste is quite complex, too: quite a dry beer, with a more grassy hop flavour (rather than a citrus one), plus spices and a slight pepperiness from the added coriander. An initial fruity sweetness leads to soft malt, with a finish and aftertaste that combines a nutty and caramel toffee flavour. You will probably experience a slight dryness on the palate that contrasts quite well with that initial sweetness.
Tabatha the Knackered is undoubtedly a strong beer and bears resemblance to a Belgian Tripel, though (for me) the jury is still out as to whether or not it is a true representation of this style. It is a good and tasty beer with a good blend of flavour layers, but it doesn’t seem to compare with the Tripels I’ve tried when in Belgium - that could be, I suppose, to do with the whole experience of being on holiday. Westmalle Tripel, for example, is much more classy, with a long aftertaste and a lovely soft fruity taste. Tabatha is however a decent beer in its own right. Maybe it just needs to be served in its own Belgian-style goblet shaped glass!
At 6.0%, it is a serious beer - the warming alcohol taste reminds you of this - but it still easy to forget because of the pleasant flavour. I particularly like the combination of the spiciness and the sweetness, as well as the way the flavour seems to develop in layers, bringing depth and variety that add to the whole drinking experience.
I’m also impressed that Anglo Dutch has been inspired to create something a little
different to the standard British brews! www.anglo-dutch-brewery.co.uk
Andrea Waterhouse
Enjoy a Pint of Pynot!
From: InnSpire - Issue 71– February 2008
 For those not from the North of England, Pynot is an old dialect word for a magpie. It can be seen in nearby Old Whittington, where there is a famous thatched cottage that was formally a tavern called the Cock & Pynot. Local superstition says that if you see a magpie you should say “I crossed the pynot, and the pynot crossed me, The devil take the pynot, and God save me”. Pynot Porter ties in the local ethos of the brewery in its name – being almost black with an off-white head also makes it look a bit magpie like too!
This style of beer originated in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries and was developed to save pubs from having to mix together the “stale” brown ale with new ale to make a drink that was very popular at that time (“stale” doesn’t mean the beer was off, it was just older beer that had been in the cask for a longer time). This method was time consuming, wasteful and not an ideal way to dispense the product. This premixed option was originally called “Entire” and quickly became popular, especially amongst the porters in the markets of London and was eventually renamed “Porter” after its biggest supporters.
Modern Porters tend to be around 5% ABV and are roasty-tasting dark brews that are bottom-fermented (the yeast settles to the bottom of the vessel during the fermentation process), and are made using dark coloured malts and vary considerably in flavour and texture.
Looks wise, it is a very dark, almost black beer. If you hold it to the light you will see it’s actually very dark brown with an attractive ruby red tinge. Poured from a hand pump you will get a pale coffee coloured head that lasts reasonably well and laces the side of the glass as you drink. Aroma is quite slight, but consists mainly of roasted malt and a hint of coffee. Texture is quite smooth, medium bodied and easy to drink. It is surprisingly rich for a Porter, which generally tend to be more watery than a stout.
Pynot Porter at 4.5% ABV has a good mix of flavours. Elements of bitter coffee, chocolate and roasted malts combine with a rich taste of vine fruits. Initially quite sweet, this soon becomes increasingly bitter, giving way to a finish that is dry. This all ends with a pretty long lasting aftertaste that also tastes of roasted malt and a hint of chocolate.
As a measure of its quality and popularity, this winter brew is produced all year round. I generally get my fix of Pynot either at the Speedwell or at the Derby Tup. The cheapest option is the Speedwell because it is brewed on the premises so there are no transport costs involved. Here a pint will cost you £2.00 – and very good value it is too! The Derby Tup is slightly pricier at about £2.40 a pint, but this is still pretty good for a beer of this quality and taste.
Readers are encouraged to try a pint and help support small regional microbrewers.
Andrea Waterhouse
|
